Cheick Kongo meets Mark Godbeer at Bellator 101 in Portland

Former UFC heavyweight Cheick Kongo will make his Bellator MMA debut later this month.

The promotion on Saturday announced during its season opener, Bellator 98, that Kongo (18-8-2 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) will meet Mark Godbeer (8-1 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) at Bellator 101. Although not announced by Bellator, Godbeer-Kongo is expected to be part of the Season 9 heavyweight tournament.

Bellator 101 takes place Sept. 27 at The Moda Center at Rose Quarter (formerly known as Rose Garden) in Portland.

Kongo lost two of his final three bouts in the UFC with knockout setbacks to Roy Nelson at UFC 159 and Mark Hunt at UFC 144. Overall, the Frenchman went 11-6-1 in the UFC, but when it came time to re-sign with the promotion, the two sides when their separate ways. He remains one of the more feared strikers in the sport.

Godbeer will fight for the first time since March 2012, when he got a first-round win at BAMMA 9. In November 2011, he was stopped by Anthony Taylor at a Supremacy Fight Challenge event in his native England – the first loss of his career. Before that, he had a seven-fight winning streak – all stoppages.

The Latest

In this week’s Trading Shots, Danny Downes and Ben Fowlkes look at Ronda Rousey’s 34-second victory over Bethe Correia at UFC 190 and try to put it into terms that capture the moment without getting swept away by it.

A total of 26 fighters got their chance to shine on Saturday as part of UFC 190 at Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena. Now that UFC 190 is in the books, it’s time to commence MMAjunkie’s “Three Stars” ceremony.

The man known for cranking submissions to the point of injury added eye-gouging to his repertoire. But is the controversy of Rousimar Palhares too essential to his bizarre, awful appeal for his employers to take any meaningful action against him?